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Sony Pulls Plug on OLED TV in Japan

It’s only 11″ diagonal. It’s not even HD resolution. And it costs a mind-boggling $2,222 in Japan. But it’s OLED and it looks great, so it gets a lot of attention. Apparently, however, it hasn’t gotten enough attention. Sony will stop production of its OLED TV for Japan, just two years after it started. It is also significant that the company is not announcing a larger follow-on model, even though it has been showing one for years at CES and other industry events.

The fact is that Sony has only been producing this product in prototype quantities, with no signs of approaching full scale production. At the current price, it’s not surprising that they didn’t want to produce more units, as the demand must be severely limited. This now leaves the field to the similarly priced but HD resolution and slightly larger LG 15″ OLED HDTV.

Sony made an enormous fuss over its launch of the OLED TV, which many of us in the industry questioned on the grounds that it was such a weak product. Now the company can shift its focus to 3D, in hopes that it can reestablish its reputation as a technology leader in that segment of the market. Unfortunately, it is not likely to fare any better, as we will rapidly see all flat panel HDTV manufacturers move to add 3D support to their products.